Priorities seeks $1M pledges for Hillary Clinton

The high-dollar super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential campaign has started asking donors for $1 million pledges to fill coffers once there is a candidate, three sources told POLITICO.

The steep asks call for donors to put down roughly $100,000 this year, with the rest coming in after Clinton declares her candidacy — should she decide to run for president in 2016, the sources said. The reason for this approach is to keep from hampering Democrats’ fundraising efforts for this year’s midterms, multiple sources have said.

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Priorities has tried to push back on the perception that it was not going to help in the competitive midterms — a perception that could rebound negatively on Clinton herself — by making $250,000 donations apiece to House Majority PAC and Senate Majority PAC.

Priorities also hopes to help the Democrats with a grass-roots voter expansion effort this year, sources familiar with the plans told POLITICO. That moves the group beyond simply funneling money into advertisements, a concern a number of Democrats have had with the concept of super PACs.

“Priorities USA Action is all-in for 2014, and we will not aggressively raise for 2016 until after the midterms,” Priorities spokesman Peter Kauffmann said.

The goal for Priorities is to substantially outraise its roughly $80 million from the 2012 cycle, when it struggled to raise money amid clear ambivalence from President Barack Obama’s campaign about the existence of the super PAC.

Yet it remains to be seen whether donors will open their wallets to a great degree before Clinton herself either publicly embraces the work of Priorities or declares her candidacy. Without a clear sign that she’s running again for the White House, there may be some reluctance on the part of donors to contribute now, three fundraisers told POLITICO.

Three sources who were approached about making the high-dollar pledge said the group faces a hurdle in getting large swaths of donors to commit to $1 million this early.

Another source insisted that, while the ask is high, there will nonetheless be people who want to donate smaller amounts.

“People want to be involved,” said the source, who’s been involved in raising money for Priorities.

The super PAC plans prospective meetings with donors in the next several weeks in major cities. A meeting planned for New York City on Thursday evening, hosted by longtime Clinton backer Michael Kempner, was postponed because of scheduling conflicts and will take place down the road, two people involved in the planning said.